The basic tool is the holder account statement. The central securities depository or the member maintaining the account must provide it after every entry crediting or debiting the account, at your request and free of charge at least once a year. Compare the statement with your agreements, decisions and instructions; if it does not match, an objection under Section 108 of the Securities Act is the appropriate step.
With book-entry shares there is no document you can take out of a drawer. Who the holder is, how many units they hold and whether the shares are pledged or blocked is shown only by the records of the central securities depository or its member. An error in them is therefore not usually discovered by chance but by checking statements, and the sooner you catch it, the easier it is to explain how it arose.
A statement after every entry and at least once a year
The depository or the member maintaining your holder account must provide you with a statement without delay after every entry crediting or debiting the account, unless otherwise agreed, and also at your request. To this is added a periodic statement:
Where the central securities depository or a member maintains a holder account, it must provide the account holder, free of charge, with a statement from that account containing the data referred to in the second sentence of paragraph 8 at least once a year on a durable medium, unless more frequent provision of a statement is agreed […]
— Section 105(7) of Act No. 566/2001 Coll. (unofficial English translation)
A statement drawn up on an entry contains details of the securities concerned both before and after the entry, while a statement provided on request shows the quantity or volume of securities by type, issuer and issue (Section 105(8)). If statements have stopped arriving, for example after a change of address, request a statement and update your contact details with the depository or the member.
What to check on the statement
For each security, a holder account contains in particular the ISIN, the number of units and the share in the issue, details of co-owners and the size of their shares, information on any suspension of the right of disposal and information on whether the security is pledged, together with identification of the pledgee (Section 105(1)(c)). Compare, in particular:
- the number of units against purchase agreements, an inheritance decision or a resolution to increase share capital,
- the ISIN against the issue you actually acquired, since an issuer may have several issues,
- co-ownership shares against what follows from the agreement or the inheritance decision,
- pledges and suspensions of the right of disposal of which you are unaware or which should long since have been extinguished.
An issuer has its own control point: on every issue, amendment or cancellation of an issue it receives an extract from the issuer’s register (Section 107(5)) and, on request, a list of the holders of its securities and their pledgees (Section 107(10)).
Who else can obtain the information
Information about holders and their securities is protected (Section 109(1)). Save for statutory information duties and cases where the law so provides, the depository or the member will disclose it only to a person who proves that they have been authorised to receive it by the person to whom it relates (Section 109(2)). If a lawyer is to carry out the check for you, they need a power of attorney that meets the depository’s or the member’s requirements.
When the statement does not match
If an entry does not correspond to the underlying document, an objection is filed: with the central securities depository under Section 108(1), or, where the account is held with a bank or a dealer, with that entity under Section 108(2); how to identify the addressee is explained in an error in a member’s records. Once the correction has been made, the depository or the member will send you an extract with reasons (Section 108(4) and (5)). If the records correspond to the instruction and it is the transfer itself that is contested, the matter is dealt with by the court, as described in an error in an entry or a dispute over shares.
We will go through the statement and the documents with you and tell you whether this is an error in the records. If it is, we prepare an objection against an incorrect entry so that the depository or the member has the material needed to examine it from the outset.
This answer provides general information on the law as at 12 September 2026. It does not constitute legal services or replace an assessment of an individual case. The details of your situation may differ. Book a consultation to discuss them.
